Voter Turnout May Not Be The Same As Past Elections

Election Leaders are crossing their fingers hoping voter turnout matches up to elections in the past. But it seems just more than 10% of registered voters will decide the more than 30 races.

Less than an hour before the polls closed, at firehouse 19, there was no one in sight. It's been like this all day here but leaders are hoping by day's end 45,000 will have voted, including early voting numbers. But does it measure up to the last mayoral race?

Should they reach that goal, today's voter turnout would reach just more than 11%. That's just slightly lower than the 2005 mayoral race, which had more than 12%.
Leaders attribute that to the change in county and school district races that have been bumped to November election schedules and not low voter turnout.

But voters we spoke to think the Saturday election is causing the low turnout. "I just think it's a weekend. People are resting from the week of working, so I'm surprised, very surprised. It's sad that they're not out here voting," said Patty Ortega.

Just more than 15,000 voters placed their ballot in early voting last week, meaning the county would need to more than double that turnout just today.

Tune in for results in a special election edition of NewsChannel 9 at 10.